2blog folder catchup

As always, start out with things overheard:

Geeky things:

Political things:

Interesting things:

Funny things:

Did you know I have a superpower?

No, really — it’s true. I even use it for the forces of good!

What, I hear you plead, could J’s superpower possibly be?

Anything you give me, I can take it and make it worse.

Many folks wonder how useful this particular superpower is. Allow me to describe:  Someone walks into our office, supposedly to get something IT-ish done.  They listen to what we are talking about, and are so appalled that they either forget what they came in for, or are driven off.  Now, that’s not using it for good, but it is useful sometimes.

To use it for good requires more effort, to wit:  We are planning something — an upgrade, perhaps.  We talk about things that could go wrong, and how we should plan for them.  I take everything that could go wrong, and make it worse.  This makes the plan more robust.

Another new word

ediot: (n), from idiot. A person who is incapable of using computers, causing much pain to support staff

Catching up.

As usual, starting with overheard things — it almost always cheers me up:

I’ve been doing many things involving streaming flv video files:

Some wordpress (and other geeky) stuff:

Funny and interesting things:

Quiet!

We’ve been having many conversations about modern classical music lately. I, of course, keep listening to Philip Glass while Jason really only likes one particular concerto by Krzysztof Penderecki.

Eventually, as all converstaions of this ilk will do, the conversation turned to John Cage and his 4′33″, which Damon described being performed live once by his piano teacher. Apparently, she merely sat in front of the piano. My understanding of the piece is that it should in fact create more tension in the audience by seeming to be about to perform. Specifically, I thought that she should have put her hands above the keyboard. So, how do I state this difference of opinion?

She was playing it wrong!

Well, we thought it was funny.